In the world of “Glee” and “High School Musical,” of comedies about spelling bees and debate teams and cheerleaders and frat houses, it’s almost staggering that we’ve managed to go through the history of cinema without a film focusing on college a capella groups. But fret no longer! Nature abhors a vacuum, and as such, and hot on the heels of that one scene in “The Social Network,” a comedy focusing on the backing-free singing groups is now in the works.
Variety reports that Universal will distribute a new film from Gold Circle Films (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding“) entitled “Pitch Perfect,” based on a book by Mickey Rapkin, set amongst college a capella groups. “30 Rock” scribe Kay Cannon has penned the script, and Jason Moore, who was nominated for a Tony for his direction of “Avenue Q” on Broadway, will helm the project. Actress Elizabeth Banks will produce along with husband Max Handelman, through their Brownstone Productions company, which was previously behind the Bruce Willis vehicle “Surrogates.”
It’s not the kind of thing that we get all hot and bothered about usually, but Cannon is a funny lady, and we suppose that the potential is there for a decent guilty pleasure if it’s well executed. There’s no word if Banks will take an acting role on the project, not necessarily a given, and there’s no timeframe announced on the project yet, but we imagine it might go before cameras sometime next year.